Just Let Me Have This

This evening I was connecting Zion’s Wii to our wireless access. While he clicked around the screens faster than I could track, he told me the only reason he’s in special ed is because they don’t have a desk for him in the regular classroom. That’s not true, I told him. I never want to lie to him or diminish what is going on with him. It’s important that we all face the truth, as hard and uncomfortable as it is. “Just let me have this, mom.” Zion went on to say that he hates being labeled, that he just wants to be normal. I get that. I want that for him too, except if he was normal – let’s say, typically developing – he wouldn’t be Zion. He wouldn’t be as smart and funny and snarky and sarcastic and everything that he brings to the table that makes him Zion. He’s got it all, the good and the not-so-good. I want Zion to know I’ll be honest with him. That he can have.

Final thought: My Baby Rides the Short Bus, a brilliant anthology I contributed to along with many other mothers of special needs children, is up for a Reader’s Choice Award. Congratulations to Yantra Bertelli and Jen Silverman, editors, and all the families who contributed their stories. Please vote here: http://specialchildren.about.com/b/2011/02/11/vote-for-favorite-special-needs-memoir.htm